"Not having any torpedo models ready for experiment when the boat reached Jersey City, Captain Ericsson very kindly sent me word that I might build a few like those he proposed to use in his _Destroyer_. I therefore deferred building any on my own ideas, and decided to use his, should they prove suitable. The Delamaters built me two on his models and sent them to Jersey City for trial. For the trials of Ericsson's torpedo models the boat was set awash in the water, with the axis of the torpedo placed horizontally and about three and one-half feet below the water surface. Because there was a new floating dock lying in the water about one hundred and fifty yards from the submarine, and in a direct line with it, the firing pressure was reduced to about three hundred pounds on the square inch. When the firing valve was opened the projectile passed out and travelled about six or eight feet beyond the muzzle of the gun, then it turned upward and arose in the air to perhaps sixty or seventy feet; then it fell point foremost in the water and buried itself so deeply in the mud that we could never find it again. For the second shot the boat was depressed a few degrees and was swung to port so as to avoid butting the floating dry dock. It travelled about twice as far as its predecessor, then rose fifteen feet in the air and passed over the wall limiting the basin, striking a pile that projected above it, and frightening a fisherman who was dozing thereon. He was in no danger, however, as the pile and string-piece of heavy pine afforded him ample protection. "While the boat lay at Gorky's repair shop at the point called the 'Gap,' a test was made of the efficiency of the apparatus provided for using the boat as a diving-bell, viz., a watertight hatch placed over a hatchway on the bottom, with valves leading from air-chambers, through which air under pressure was permitted to flow and fill the space occupied by the operators.